Messages - pahicks

To follow up my original post, I actually expected some frustration or exasperation on the phone...It is the week after decisions were mailed, so she probably did have a million calls that day. I have had moments of frustration that caused me to react poorly, but I am not the paid represenative of an organization. SMU has been a little frustrating throughout the entire application process, but hanging up on a caller just crossed some line to me. Yes, the frustration came from the lady's actions, but that lady was representing the school... so being frustrated with her is the same as being frustrated with the admissions offce, at least from my position.

To those making excuses for her...I am not going to write the dean or call back and hang up on her or anything. maybe youre right and she had a rough day, but maybe she is in the wrong line of work.

I knew SMU was to send all acceptances by last week, but I did not get anything and I gave them a call this afternoon.

me: "Hello, I was wondering if I could check the status of my application." smu: (in an angry tone) "all decisions were mailed last week. you should have it. check your mail."me: "I did check my mail and I knew they were mailed last week, so I called today to be sure there was no problem or delay." smu: (more annoyed sounding) "you should have it, check your mail, you probably missed it."me: "no ma'am, it wasnt there. I dont mean to be a bother, I just wanted to be sure there was not a problem or anything..." smu: click

I am sure it is a good school and I am happy for the people who want to go there, but I have had nothing but bad experiences with them. Not only do they wait until May to send out decisions, but they are completely rude and sound angry when they answer the phone. not necessary in my opinion.

I sent in my deposit to WUStL. I would be happy to go there, so I am not upset about anything, but UGA would make a lot of things really easy for me. Hopefully they will start working off the list soon...WL waiting is even worse that pending waiting.

I donít know about the number of fee waivers...but I would imagine it can't be a very large a portion of total applicants.

As far as making applications school-specific, I think a lot of schools are moving to more specific statements. Obviously some are still using the "ambitions/goals/desires" topic, but a lot of the apps I read had very specific questions that couldnít really be transferred between applications. But I do love that all of the less-important information is filled in for online applications.

When I applied to colleges most schools had a very basic application part I (of you could use the common app) and then supplementary pages that you would get after you submitted part I. Most of those questions were very specific and even had several short-answer questions relating to specific aspects of the schools. Maybe that would be a good direction to take to cut the number down and make the whole process more efficient.

So what if the entire process was changed a little so that you paid the application fee, but if you withdrew your app before you were notified of a decision, the school would refund your money (or some of it at least)...use the application fee as an encouragement to make the process more efficient (both schools and applicants)it would encourage schools to process applications quickly...or at least not delay for monthsit would encourage applicants to notify schools of their decisions, freeing up spaces for other candidates and reducing the work done by adcoms

obviously it would be near impossible to implement, but its an idea at least

Yeah, gotta say I am a little surprised at UGA's status check and the incredible variation in how long some apps are reviewed. I'm hoping to hear something good from UGA soon...probably end up there if I can get off the WL, but WUStL is tops on my admitted list for the moment. And you sdkat...what/where are you thinking?

I've been complete at these schools for quite a while...a couple of months and i havent heard anything. GSU's status check still says complete and ready for review. Are they just incredibly slow or should I give them a call to see what is going on?

I dont know how much it can help, but I really dont think its going to do damage either...It might be something to separate you into the "still interested" pile out of the "not interested" or "still unsure about UGA" piles...maybe when they start pulling off waitlists they would prefer someone with continued dedication...